


And Find Our Spark

by fangirlsweruntheworld



Series: Bright Forever [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Companion Piece, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentioned Julie Molina, Pre-Canon Flashbacks, Songwriting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:54:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27623674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirlsweruntheworld/pseuds/fangirlsweruntheworld
Summary: Luke and Alex talk about "Bright" and think about what the song really meant to the two of them, before giving it to Julie to sing for her school.A companion piece to C'mon Let's Run
Relationships: Alex/Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: Bright Forever [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019472
Comments: 3
Kudos: 68





	And Find Our Spark

**Author's Note:**

> This is a companion piece to "C'mon Let's Run" so if you haven't read that one yet, I'd say go for it first, but this can be a stand alone.

“There’s gotta be something we can do to help Julie. Music is her gift, and we can’t let that slip away from her.” 

Luke paced around the studio while Reggie and Alex sat on the couch watching him. 

“Maybe we can help her with a song! Something she can show to her class!” Reggie suggested. 

“Reginald, you are smarter than you let on.” Reggie shrugged, but smiled to himself. “Maybe a Sunset Curve song? She could make it totally rad with some killer piano.” Luke ran to his lyric book and started flipping through songs. “Me over you?” He suggested. 

Alex scrunched up his nose. It was never one of their best, and he had remembered Luke wrote that during a bit of an angry time in his life. “That might not be the message she wants to send to her school dude.” 

Thinking about it, Luke nodded and flipped through some more, scanning through his writing. 

“What about Bright?” Reggie asked, looking between Luke and Alex. 

“Reggie! You  _ are  _ a genius. That’s perfect.” A huge smile was plastered over his face and he flipped to the page where he knew the song would be, dog earring it. 

Alex made a disgruntled noise and Luke glanced at him to see his mood had shifted. 

“What's with you? You don't think that girl would kill it with the high parts?” Luke asked, his tone a little pissy. 

“Do you wanna write something for her?” Reggie asked. 

“No.” Alex snapped. 

It took only a second for the gears in his head to click and the memory placed itself. Summer of ‘94. The year they wrote bright. The year  _ Alex  _ had written bright. 

“Alex…” Luke started. 

“Forget it. It doesn’t matter.” Alex poofed out suddenly and Reggie threw up both of his hands in utter confusion. 

“What’s his issue?” Reggie asked. But Luke knew. 

—

_ “I think Reggie can go high on this next bit and then you and I can do the harmony.”  _

_ Alex nodded and made a note for himself.  _

_ “We will rise. Through the night. You and I. Will we fight to shine together.” Luke sang softly, testing out a bit of a falsetto before falling back into his normal range. “Bright forever.” _

_ “I think this works great. It’s better than what I had thought of for the melody. But then again, I’m not the expert.”  _

_ Alex and Luke were alone in the studio, writing the song Alex had introduced—drunkenly—the other night on the beach. Reggie was stuck at home, because his parents were “trying to make it work” and that included him, and Bobby was out with the girl he had met at the party.  _

_ Luke smiled over at Alex taking in the compliment, although he didn’t feel in the slightest like an expert.  _

_ “Hey, you did all the heavy lifting for these lyrics man. Give yourself some credit.” His hand made its way to Alex’s shoulder and he squeezed lightly.  _

_ Even though neither of them were acting differently after the other night, Luke felt like there were things that were being left unsaid. He wasn’t one to pry, especially with Alex. Mostly because Alex was an open book to him and told him everything anyways. But also because he had been fragile the past couple months. Tensions were high with him coming out, and he felt like he was walking on eggshells around his parents. Luke didn’t need to make anything harder for him.  _

_ But he knew something was going on between them. He just didn’t know how he felt.  _

_ Alex had been his best friend for years, and after he came out to him, he knew nothing would change. At least he thought nothing would. But every time he looked at him, or when he would wrap his arm around his shoulders, there was a tiny whisper of a feeling in his chest that made him wonder if something had changed.  _

_ And whether or not Alex would accept that change. Luke feared that if he told Alex his feelings were beginning to develop, that Alex would take it as him pitying him, or worse making fun of him.  _

_ So he kept it to himself, until that night on the beach.  _

_ Alex had been totally fucked up and was almost entirely incoherent until he had started telling Luke the lyrics to this song. A song, Luke was pretty sure he had said was about the two of them.  _

_ Things felt even more different now.  _

_ “So, are we gonna talk about this song and what it means?” Luke wasn't one to pry, but this felt like something he needed to do.  _

_ Alex’s cheeks flushed a bit and he looked around the room, trying to find some way to escape the conversation.  _

_ When he realized he had no excuses to make up, the truth just started flowing out. “It was this stupid Sunday night dinner when my grandparents showed up out of town. My dad's parents. Well, of course my dad starts talking about the band, but keeps saying “Alexander’s little hobby”, totally dismissing it.” Luke scoffed. What was it with parents just not believing in their band? _

_“So they are interrogating me, asking me all these questions, ones I really didn’t have answers to. ‘How much have you boys been making, how are you getting into these music clubs, what are you going to do when it’s over? Stupid shit like that. But then they ask,_ _‘what happens when you want to find a nice girl to settle down with.’ It's as if this is the 1950’s and I have to settle down.” Luke nods, listening intently, his pen and notebook now discarded on the table next to them._

_ “Of course my dad makes the comment about how I haven’t brought home any girls, starts saying he’s worried about me. Then here comes the lecture from my grandpa about how he’s seen, and I quote him, ’a lot of those homosexuals up north’ and how I better not be one of them. I’m just like...okay, can this end soon.”  _

_ Luke sees the hurt in Alex’s eyes, and can tell this has been weighing on him for a while. He just wished that he hadn’t waited so long to tell him.  _

_ “This is nothing I haven’t heard before Luke. But as I sit there, these thoughts are filling my head and I’m trying to drown them out or just keep eating and well... they bring up you.” _

_ Luke's eyes grow wide and his voice cracks a little when he says, “Me?” Alex nods.  _

_ “My dad says how you’re around so much, and worries about the things we get up to. “Boys don’t need to spend so much alone time together.” So I defend you...of course...and he looks at me like I’m hiding something. I didn’t even know what to say. The rest of the dinner was very quiet.” When he’s done, he lets out a long breath, like he was holding it in the whole time.  _

_ “Dude. They suck. If I had been there I would’ve…” _

_ Alex cuts him off. “Oh. Trust me I know. Which is kind of how I got inspiration for writing the song. After they left, I went up to my room and my head was spinning and the words were filling up, and I thought about what you would’ve said and what you would’ve done. And to me...that was enough to write a song.” Luke could feel his face get warm, something about Alex telling him he was thinking about him protecting him from his dad made him feel a type of way.  _

_ “Your songs move me and…” Alex stopped for a moment, thinking about the connotation of what he had just said, and considered just leaving it at that. “I just thought about us, and how we would do anything for each other and anything for this band and well.” Alex sighed. “I really didn’t expect to spill it all to you the other night. That drink really got to my head.” _

_ “You mean those many drinks.” Luke smirked and Alex playfully pushed at his shoulders.  _

_ “Okay.” He laughed. “Whatever, I was shitfaced. Regardless. I wanted the whole song to be fleshed out before I showed it to you guys...but I’m glad we’re writing it together.  _

_ Luke pulled him into his side and hugged him tightly, resting his chin atop the mop of blonde hair on his head. “I’m glad too.” _

_ — _

Alex poofed back into the studio not long after venturing out. Since they became ghosts, Alex could feel his anxiety gnawing away at him. This constant pressure inside his chest like it was just waiting to spill out from inside him. 

He hadn’t meant to overreact by leaving so abruptly, but something in his brain was screaming for him to get out of there before he said something he would regret. 

It wasn’t like Reggie knew the real truth behind the song, Alex never  _ really _ told him. When the boys introduced it to the guys, they just said Alex helped write it and there were never any second thoughts. 

Even when Luke and Alex continued to work on it, Alex didn’t admit to Luke then and there that this song was about what they could’ve been if they could be together the way Alex wanted them to be...at that time. 

But the thing was, Alex and Luke had tried. They really did. They gave the whole friends but more  _ thing _ a shot, and let their feelings get the best of them until it all became too much, and they realized if they kept going, things may never be the same again. 

Which rang true, because they died. 

But that song had always had a small place in Alex’s heart and he considered it Luke’s and His. Even after their breakup—if what it was could even be called that—they still rehearsed the song, even though they had discarded it for their tour setlists. 

Luke was sitting at the piano, illuminated by just a small lamp to his left and was scribbling onto a torn out sheet of notebook paper. 

“Hey.” Alex said, walking over to him, his hands shoved into his pant pockets. 

“Hey.” Luke said looking up at him from his place on the piano bench. 

Alex glanced around quickly, then asked, “Where’s Reg?” 

“He said he wanted to snoop through Julie’s dad's things. I didn’t question it. I knew you’d be back soon, so I wanted to wait up to talk to you…”

“Luke, listen.”

“No let me finish.” He cut him off. “Please?” Alex nodded, sliding in next to him on the bench. 

“I understand why you left, and I honestly didn’t even realize at first that what we said would bother you. I just thought about how awesome that song was and how we never actually got to play it anywhere, and this could be the moment we were waiting for, for Sunset Curve to be reborn.” Alex went to speak but Luke shushed him. “Wait...I’m not done yet. Uh, I know that song meant something to you, to us. And it wasn’t long before we died that things ended. So I get if things are still like fresh or whatever. But we don’t have to give her this song if you really don’t wanna.” Alex looked at him and raised his eyebrow. “Okay, okay. I’m done now.” 

“Luke, I feel like I overreacted. I love this song, and what we made it become after I wrote it was huge for me. Huge for us. But at the end of the day, I agree. People hearing our music again, especially this song, is bigger than any of my silly feelings about it.” 

Luke shook his head. “They aren’t silly Alex.” 

“No, I know. I just mean, what we had, what we were, it was complicated. But once it was written and we started rehearsing it, I dunno, it felt like it was Sunset Curve’s more than it was ours.” Alex shook his head. “I don’t think I’m making sense. Let me start over. I think we should give the song to Julie. Let it go to her, give it new meaning. And not like, let it be tied to what we once were.” Luke frowned a bit, it almost felt bittersweet. Like that chapter of their lives really was coming to a close. 

“I agree. Which is also why I switched some of the lyrics, with your approval of course, so it doesn’t feel so...us.” 

Alex looked at the torn out sheet of paper and read what Luke had written. There were tons of scribbles and markings all over it, new words hovering above the old ones. 

What once read: 

_ “Stuck in my head with nothing left _

_ And when we felt lost and alone _

_ I know that you can make us home _

_ Fight through this dark and find our spark”  _

Now said, 

_ In times that I doubted myself _

_ I felt like I needed some help _

_ Stuck in my head with nothing left _

_ And when I feel lost and alone _

_ I know that I can make it home _

_ Fight through the dark and find the spark.  _

Alex nodded, pleased with the changes. This was the way it should be. “I think this is great. Like I’ve always said, you’re the lyrical genius. You know best.” 

Luke pulled him into a contorted hug and squeezed him tight. 

“You’re right though. I do.” Laughter erupted from both the boys and they stayed embraced for just a moment longer. “I can tell Julie I wrote it, if that makes you more comfortable. I don’t know if you wanna air all our dirty laundry to her just yet.”

Alex shrugged. “That’s probably a good idea.” They pulled apart and Alex stood up from the bench, walking over to where his bag of clothes were, taking off his sneakers next to it and putting his hat on top of the stuff. He ruffled his hands through his hair and turned back to Luke. 

“Thanks man.” Luke smiled. 

“Anytime brother.” 

They stayed silent for another moment, and then Luke poofed out, saying he was going to snoop through the kitchen. 

Really, he hoped to run into Julie, so he had the chance give her the song. He had a whole speech prepared about how she couldn't give up her dreams. 

Plus, it was time for their music to be heard again.    
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I can't stop writing angsty fics about these two boys. I just love the dynamic between them, and feel like there is just so much potential. 
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> \- T


End file.
